Ever since my youth, I have been questioned by higher authorities about my “problem.” When I would walk through town, the other kids would look at me and sneer and mock my name. You may be asking what my name is, but that is in due time. I’m writing this as it seems as the hand of time is going to carry my soul away. Why did they insult me? What is wrong with me? It all started when I was seven. Chapter I “Province! What the hell are you doing in there?!” Yelled George with an attempt to snap me out of my “trance”. “Get out of there before you get caught!”

I didn’t listen. I was young and was an adventurer. The air catching my hair in the wind makes me feel like I’m invincible, as if I could take on all of the world’s armies by myself and conquer them with a swift punch to the stomach. Oh I’m terribly sorry for not introducing myself. My name, as you could tell, is Province Galighan. I was born in Nova Scotia Canada (Kind of ironic how my name was Province and I lived in Canada eh?) until I was seven, but once again, what kind of autobiography would this be without cliff hangers?

“I’ll kick your ass if you don’t get back her’ damnit!”

George was my best friend at this age, always sticking with me through thick and thin. Whether George and I were saving cats from trees, or standing up for the kids getting sand kicked in their faces, we were always standing up and helping one another.

If you were wondering what I was doing, this is kind of embarrassing, but I jumped the fence of a power plant and was walking towards one of the reactors. There was a rumor going around that this place was haunted so I decided to take a glimpse at this so called ghost.

The power plant was abandon since 1989 in Nova Scotia. Apparently a reactor burst and killed many of the workers there at the time and was closed due to “probable chance of failure” in the future. The plant itself towered over the plains nearby. I mean, it was pretty desolate in the surrounding area. I few balsam fir trees in the area, with grass that was almost overgrown like a forest. If you looked away from the plant, you could almost see the wind look like it was sweeping the ground with water, from the glaze of the sun.

The door of the facility was encrusted with dirt and had a dent on the bottom for which I could crawl into. I approached it carefully, watching my steps as my shoes crunched into the ground, leaving imprints of my steps. The concrete flooring was faltering outside the plant with overgrowths and cracks in it. I couldn’t hear George anymore, I just figured he was climbing the fence or trying to get help. The sounds of chains from the fence behind me were rattling with rage as I crawled through the entrance of the power plant.

I looked up at the ceiling, which creaked and dripped with moist dew from the metal, rusted and wearing which made a creaking sound from dead weight of the other metal. The top of the building was linked by long metal rods in what seemed like random locations. It was so moist in this building that moss was actually growing from these poles.

I took a step in, carefully, trying not to put too much pressure on any one spot in case it collapsed in. Hey, I didn’t know whether it would cave in or not so don’t think I’m inane.

There was a banging at the outside metal door which clanged inside the building. “You freaking idiot! Get out of there Province! Who knows what’s in there! For Christ’s sake.” I wasn’t worried about George getting in here. Another fun fact about George was he was a bit on the chunkier side as a kid. In fact, he couldn’t even budge his way through the door. But he tried, and oh did he try. George tried to crawl his way through the door so aggressively, that he got stuck half way through and his body swelled from panic so he couldn’t get out. He yelled and yelled and yelled as I travelled through, but I figured I could come back for him later. I mean, this is a desolate location anyways.

Dark and wet… That’s what this place was. The only light coming in to this building was from the small windows near the roof, but I guess it was enough for me to see anyways.

I started walking left and got caught in a cobweb, which I proceeded to swat in front of me while walking in case any more were in front of me. I noticed a switch on the wall with caution tape around it and seemed to not been touched forever. My hand reached out automatically, sweating as I fought my urge not to pull it. Even when it landed on the switch, I started to pu-… You really think I would pull the switch? It would probably have electrocuted me or blown up the place.

Walking forward seemed like an eternity, seeing as how massive this building was. Although, the rats that scurried on my feet seemed to want to keep me company. At least, I hope they were rats.

I made my way down the hallways trying to step on any of these creatures, when I completely forgot about George. He won’t be happy about me leaving him there. Actually, he might shun me like last summer when I accidently spilled his drink over the picnic table. His face got red with rage as if he wanted to strike me down with his glare alone. My attempt to ignore him was faulty, but I still made it down the long curving hallways.

Being as I couldn’t see very far in front of my own face, I bumped into a hard metal container. I hit my head when I started to fall unconscious and could feel the creatures running across my arms and legs with their sharp claws pressing into my skin. My eyes blinked and my head turned to the side as I fell into a deep sleep.

When I arouse to find myself in a pressing pain, I forgot where I even was. My clothes were tattered to mere scrapes except my jeans, which just had a hole in the knee. I suppose jeans always had more durability than other articles of clothing, but you may be asking why my clothing was gone. Don’t worry just yet about it; I still didn’t even know where the blazes I was. Kind of like amnesia eh? Anyways, I stood up to find a wet liquid surrounding me.

“What the F***?” I said aloud, looking around confused and in pain, as if I could actually see in this darkness.

The room I was in was cold and damp, with a stale taste in the air of rusty metal. My tongue was too dry to even taste most of it, which really makes me mad when it’s dry and it annoys my mouth the whole time. The ground’s unknown liquid was warm.

Subscribe

Get Teen Ink’s 48-page monthly print edition. Written by teens since 1989.